1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cop magazine for use in association with an automatic winding apparatus, the cop magazine including a device for holding the yarns under suction while the respective cops are delivered to the automatic winding apparatus, thereby facilitating the winding operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art that several cops are stored in the cells of a cylindrical cop magazine attached to the automatic winding apparatus. Every time the cell in the magazine is emptied the magazine is rotated by one pitch so that the next cop is made ready to deliver. In the known cop magazines the operator must find the end of the yarn leading from each cop and pull it by hand so as to retain the yarns on a retainer device under suction. This requires a lot of manual labor.
To facilitate the pulling of the yarns one way is to fix the yarn ends to the respective bobbins beforehand by winding them around the rims of the bobbins or by inserting them through the bobbon bores; recently the latter method being popular. To practice these methods a special device must be utilized. For the known cop magazines the provision of such a device is proposed for automatically pulling the yarn ends and leading them into a retainer device housed in the magazine.
In order to explain the known winding apparatus reference will be made to FIGS. 1 to 4:
The winding apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes several yarn winding sections 2 in opposition to which the same number of cop magazines 4 are provided. Each winding section 2 receives the yarns leading from the cop 5a delivered from the magazine 4. When the yarn on the cop 5a is emptied a yarn binding device 3 stops its reciprocal movement effecting throughout the winding section 2, and the magazine 4 is rotated by one pitch so as to deliver the next cop. The yarns from the package 2a and from the delivered cop 5a are tied.
The cop magazine 4 has a tube creel 11 concentric of the cylindrical body 4a, which has the cells for housing the cops 5; in the illustrated magazine six cells are provided. The cell is a bore produced vertically through the cylindrical body of the magazine 4. Each cylindrical body 4a has a recess 4b through which the body 4a is communicated with a chute 6. The tube creel 11 is rotated pitch by pitch, for example, by 60.degree. increments in the counter-clockwise direction, thereby allowing the cops 5 to be delivered therethrough. The reference number 5b designates a cop situated at a delivery-ready position. The tube creel 11 is provided with a cover 7 (FIG. 2) at its upper section, the cover being connected to a suction pipe 14 (FIG. 6) and swingable on an axis indicated by the dotted line. The cover 7 includes suction port 7a kept so as not to be normally in alignment with the suction pipe 14. When they are to be aligned, the cover 7 is rotated by hand or by any other means. Then the yarn end of the cop 5 is retained at the suction port 7a, wherein at this stage the cop 5 is delivered through the recess 4b. The arm 3c pulls the yarn ends, and binds them. After they are cut the resulting yarn odds and ends are removed through the suction pipe 14 by aligning the suction port 7a with the open end of the pipe 14.
As is evident from the foregoing description it is necessary to find the yarn end of each cop 5 stored in the magazine 4 and retain it at the cover 7 by hand. To avoid this manual labor a cop magazine is devised so as to automatically lead the yarn end into the suction port 7a, wherein the yarns are previously inserted through the bobbin bores. For an explanation in greater detail reference will be made to FIGS. 3 and 4:
In FIG. 3 the cover 7 is provided with suction pipe 8 curved so as to extend over the suction port 7a and the cop delivery position or the cop housed in the preceeding cell. The yarn is sucked through the suction port 7a, and retained therein.
FIG. 4 shows another modified version, characterized in that a special suction and a retention duct 9 is provided at each cop magazine in such a manner as to extend over the delivery-ready position and the delivery position. Under the duct 9 there is provided a suction port which is covered by a plate 10 capable of opening and closing by a pin fixed to the cover 7. The plate 10 is closed and opened in the same manner as the suction port 7a.
The cylindrical body 4a is provided with a stop means (not shown) and a yarn end support (not shown) in the recess 4b, the former being intended to prevent the bobbins from further advancing and the latter being intended to support the yarn ends.
In the regular cleaning of the winding apparatus or in the replacement of parts it is necessary to detach the cop magazines therefrom but in the known apparatus the parts are of complicated assembly, thereby resulting in prolonged cleaning time. There is a proposal for adapting the known cop magazines shown in FIG. 2 but this results in a complicate and expensive structure.